


Get Me Out Of This Storm

by TheStoryteller13



Series: AUgust Writing Challenge [7]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe - 19th Century, F/F, Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, heretic!lizzie, hope is a lighthouse keeper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26005384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStoryteller13/pseuds/TheStoryteller13
Summary: “I think I was drawn here.”Hope nods. “It's a lighthouse. It's meant to inspire feelings of safety and protection.”
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman
Series: AUgust Writing Challenge [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859824
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	Get Me Out Of This Storm

She appears like a ghost in the middle of the night. 

The waves crash diligently against the rocks the lighthouse sits on, slowly wearing away the stones. One day, Hope knows that the rocks will crumble completely, and the lighthouse will fall to the sea to be swept up beneath the waves. And she will likely go with it. The rain comes down hard, whipped around by the wind, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Hope keeps up her duties well into the night, pushing past her tiredness. 

Looking down from the top of the lighthouse, Hope spots a figure on the rocks in a flash of lightning. She is drenched and she’s gone by the next time the lightning flashes. Still, Hope knows she was _there_. She goes down the stairs of the tower and opens the door, only no one stands outside. She walks around to glance at the sides. The air is salty, and the wind whips her hair around, but there’s no sign of the girl she saw. 

Hope turns back to her lighthouse and locks herself back inside. She shivers and shakes off the brief coldness that the rain brings. And then she heads back up the stairs. 

Only to see the woman on the stairs a little ways away, lit up by the lightning through one of the small windows. 

“Hey!” Hope shouts. 

The figure is gone when she gets to the spot on the stairs. Hope propels herself up, taking the stairs two at a time, following the woman up and up in the flashes of light. Until they reach the top and Hope can see the woman illuminated more clearly by the rotating light. 

“Hey.” She says softer this time. 

Now she can see that the woman is shaking. Blonde hair drips water onto her shoulders and into the fabric of her white dress. Her skirt is ripped and dirty and she’s lost the crinoline that should be underneath. Her bodice is also missing, revealing her corset and the chemise peeking out from under it. Her hands are scraped, bloody, with dirt underneath her nails. In fact, when Hope takes a closer look, she can see that this woman is covered in dirt and blood— some of it has been washed away by the water. 

Her expression is scared, her eyes keep glancing around. She looks like she isn’t quite sure where she is or how she got there. 

“Are you okay?” Hope asks, but she doesn’t respond. Hope takes a tentative step forward and the woman takes one back. 

Hope holds her hands up in front of her and doesn’t make any other move forward. “What’s your name?” 

The woman shivers, glances around again. “Elizabeth.” She manages to get out. 

Hope nods. “I’m Hope. I’m going to help you.” 

#

Elizabeth doesn’t say anything else. She does let Hope give her a blanket and lead her back down the stairs. At the base of the lighthouse is where Hope makes her home. She offers Elizabeth the bed and is glad to see the woman fall asleep within a couple hours. Hope takes a few extra blankets she has stowed away and sleeps across the room in her bathtub. 

The next morning she makes breakfast. When Elizabeth wakes up, she looks refreshed. Definitely dryer. She slept in just her chemise, so she starts to pull back on her muddy skirt and corset. In the light of the day Hope can see the blood on it more clearly. She can also see the dried blood and cuts on Elizabeth’s skin. She doesn’t comment on it. 

“I can make you a new dress.” Hope offers. 

Elizabeth just nods, and then she wraps a blanket around her shoulders, covering herself. Hope gives her a plate of the food she cooked up, then leaves Elizabeth alone to her own devices. Hope has her own duties to attend to in the lighthouse. 

Throughout the day Hope just watches her. She doesn’t look as haunted she did the night before, but she keeps glancing around as if she expects someone to burst through the doors at any moment. She stays far away from any of the windows. Mostly she just sits and stares. Hope wonders desperately about what might have happened to her, but she keeps quiet because she doesn’t want to be rude. 

Near the end of the day, Hope goes down to check on her and finds her looking at the bookshelf Hope keeps. 

“You can read whatever you like.” Hope tells her. She jumps slightly at the sound of Hope’s voice. Hope holds up her hands. “Sorry.” 

Elizabeth shakes her head. “It’s alright.” 

Hope smiles. She has a pretty sounding voice. 

“I have a bath here if you’d like to get cleaned up.” She gestures off to the bathtub. 

Elizabeth seems to think on it for a moment, and then she nods. Hope gets to work on filling the tub with warm water and pulling out the various soaps she has. She places them and a towel on a small table that she pulls over next to the tub. When she’s done, she leaves Elizabeth to her bath and starts to head back upstairs. 

“Hope?” She calls out. 

Hope stops and turns back to her. She has her knees pressed against her chest and she’s looking uncertain. 

“Could you. . .” She bites her lip, pauses. Then, “Would you. . . help me?” 

Hope nods. She grabs a spare piece of cloth and hands it to Elizabeth, and when she looks confused Hope says, “So you can cover yourself, if you wanted.” 

She nods, presses the cloth against her front, and leans forward for Hope to wash her back. There are cuts and bruises all over her. Hope is careful as she scrubs the dirt and dried flecks of blood from her skin. She moves to Elizabeth’s shoulders and then down one arm to her hand. Her skin is colder than one would expect, but soft. She looks far paler than Hope first thought once she rids her skin of the dirt. 

“I don’t know how I got here.” Elizabeth whispers. It makes Hope stop as she’s washing down her other arm, but she quickly recovers and continues, letting Elizabeth continue speaking or let the admission hang quiet in the air. 

Elizabeth continues, though. “I think I was drawn here.”

Hope nods. “It's a lighthouse. It's meant to inspire feelings of safety and protection.” 

As Hope cleans her skin she focuses on a small spell of healing, something to at least ease the soreness and residual pain. 

Elizabeth doesn’t say anything else, and Hope doesn't press. She just gently cleans the grime from her other hand. When she's done, she gives the soap and rag to Elizabeth so she can clean the rest of her body. Hope just sits at the back of the tub with her back to her. 

“I can wash your hair if you want.” Hope offers. 

“That would be nice.” Elizabeth says. 

Hope waits until the sounds of shifting water stops and Elizabeth hands her back the rag and soap. Then she gets up and fetches a jug and fills it with water. Elizabeth keeps the fabric wrapped around herself, but she leans back her head and closes her eyes to allow Hope to pour the water over her hair. Hope gently brushes through the blonde tangles, then rubs some oils through as well. When she’s done, she pours more water over her hair to rinse it out. 

Elizabeth grabs the dry towel, so Hope stands and turns. She gathers up a spare chemise and dress and hands them to Elizabeth when she’s out of the water and wrapped in the towel. 

“They won’t fit, but it’ll give you something to wear while I wash your things.” Hope tells her. 

Elizabeth nods gratefully, and Hope leaves her alone while she climbs back up the stairs to continue tending to the lighthouse. 

#

Hope notes the way Elizabeth seems to slow the next day. Her skin looks sickly and Hope is starting to worry that she might be sick. Hope keeps an eye on her for the rest of the day while repainting the lighthouse. She doesn’t eat the food Hope makes. Hope makes the decisions to get Elizabeth a doctor as soon as possible. 

When night falls, Hope sits down at her desk to write a letter. She dips her pen into the ink and then she’s being pushed from her chair and onto the floor. Hope’s first instinct is to cushion her fall. Her second is to push away what slammed into her. 

It’s Elizabeth. She holds Hope down with a surprising strength. She bears her sharp teeth and her eyes flash a darker color, turning red and dark as the veins beneath her eyes shift. _Ah_. Hope pushes her off with all her strength and then focuses. It pains her, but Elizabeth presses her hands to her head and screams. Hope keeps it up as she backs away and then drops it as she pulls the trap door to her basement. It’s cooler down there, and she grabs a blood bag from her stash and runs back upstairs. 

Elizabeth shies away from her when she approaches, scrambling away and looking guilty and scared. Hope just tosses the bag in her direction. Elizabeth hesitates for a moment, but her instincts take over and she can’t help herself from grabbing the bag and sucking down every last drop. Immediately, Hope can see her start to look livelier. 

“How long have you been a vampire?” Hope asks. 

She takes a moment, then, “How long have you had blood in your basement?” 

Hope’s lips curve up. She shakes her head. “Just don’t attack me the next time you get hungry.” 

She starts to retreat, going to put away her things on her desk now that she doesn’t have to write a letter.

“It hasn’t been long.” Elizabeth says. 

Hope turns back to her and waits.

“I—” She looks sad, like she isn’t sure she wants to say. Hope takes a few steps forward and kneels down across from her. 

“I used to be a witch.” She says. Then corrects herself, “I _am_ a witch.” 

“You’re a hybrid.” Hope whispers. She has more experience on the subject than most. 

Elizabeth nods, but she doesn’t say anything else. So Hope says, “You’re a siphoner witch.” 

She nods again. Hope smiles. “Do a spell with me.” 

Hope holds out her hands and Elizabeth, hesitantly, takes them. 

“Just repeat after me.” Hope instructs. And then she starts to chant. 

Her voice is a little shaky, like she isn’t sure she can still cast. Or that it might be wrong if she does. Hope squeezes her hands and hopes that it’s enough to give her a little more confidence. The spell brightens up the room and at first Elizabeth shies away from the brightness, panicking for a moment. There’s sunlight here. But when it doesn’t burn her, she loosens up. 

Above them, the spiraling stairs have disappeared and given way to a bright blue sky. There’s the sound of birds chirping, and fluffy clouds move across the sky. Elizabeth looks at it with awe and wonder. The sun is shining down on her, probably for the first time since she became a vampire— Hope notes that there is no daylight ring on her. 

She closes her eyes and looks up at the light, feeling the illusion of its warmth. It makes her hair look like it’s glowing. Hope can see that with the new blood running in her system, the remaining cuts and bruises heal completely, and now she looks like a goddess. Unblemished, unmarked. Hope tries not to stare for too long, but she can’t help it. Elizabeth is beautiful. 

“I missed the sun.” Elizabeth says. 

“I can make you a daylight ring.”

Her eyes snap down to Hope’s. “Really?” 

“Yeah. I have most of the material here.” Hope says. 

“I would really appreciate that.” Elizabeth smiles. 

#

Hope makes a daylight ring, and surprisingly, Elizabeth stays. She expected that the moment she could walk in the daylight, she’d be out the door and returning to wherever she came from. Hope had accepted the fact that she might not ever find out what happened to her or why she had been drawn to the lighthouse. But some things weren’t for her to know. 

But she _stayed._ She started asking about what went into keeping up a lighthouse and Hope started to teach her how to do it. Together, for several days, they tend to the lighthouse. Elizabeth takes to reading out passages from books Hope hasn’t bothered to read yet. And Hope sews her a new dress. 

“He was going to send me away.” Elizabeth says one day. 

Hope looks up from the letter she was writing and turns fully toward her. 

“I don’t know what happened to my sister. I never met my mother. So it was just me and my dad and when he saw me doing magic it freaked him out.” She admits. 

Hope stands up and moves over to where she sits at the table in the corner and sits down across from her. She doesn’t say anything, but this time she can tell that Elizabeth has more to say, and so she waits for her to be ready to continue. 

“He said I was possessed by the devil. That I needed to be sent away.” She swallows. Picks at the fabric of her skirt and is silent for a moment. Then, “I have a good friend who is a vampire. He gave me his blood and he helped me transition. He was going to help me escape, perhaps find my sister, but during my escape I fell into the ocean. Or I was pushed. I can’t really remember.” 

She gets really quiet then, almost scared of the thing she’s going to say next. She looks up at Hope and says very quietly, “I think I killed my father.” 

Hope takes it all in with a nod. It makes sense, then, why she was covered in blood the night she appeared. The waves were pretty heavy that night, too, so it is entirely possible that she was bashed against the rocks in the water and that's why her dress was torn and why she was covered in cuts and bruises. The thought makes Hope shiver with anger and protectiveness. 

“Can I hug you?” Hope asks. 

Elizabeth looks confused for a moment, and then she nods. They both stand to make it less awkward and Hope pulls her in close. If she holds Elizabeth a bit too tightly, neither of them notice. Or maybe they don’t care. Elizabeth holds her back just as tightly, and even though there’s a height difference, she presses into Hope’s neck, as if she’s trying to hide from the outside world. Hope is happy to be her shield. 

“Is that why you stayed?” Hope strokes down her hair. “Because you think you might be in trouble with the law?” 

She pulls back to look Hope in the eye, keeping her arms around her. “I stayed because you make me feel safe.”

There isn't a hint of hesitation or embarrassment in her words. Hope blushes and looks away. The words make something in her jump, her heart stutter. She extracts herself from Elizabeth’s arms, feeling far too warm now, and mumbles something about the lighthouse and retreats back up the stairs. 

#

There’s another storm. It happens fairly often, so Hope is used to them. Elizabeth, however, doesn’t seem to be. She whimpers in the night, hidden beneath the blankets on the bed. Thunder cracks loudly and she screams. 

“Hope!” She’s there in an instant, beside Elizabeth’s bed. 

“Elizabeth.” Hope says. “I’m here.” 

Her hand takes Hope’s wrist tightly, tugging, and before she knows it Hope is dragged into the bed as well. She instinctively wraps her arm around Elizabeth, who presses as close as she can get, as if Hope can stop anything that would try to hurt her. 

They stay like that until the storm quiets. Hope is half asleep, but she’s brought to when she hears, “you called me Elizabeth.” 

“That’s your name.” Hope says. 

“Call me Lizzie. I like it better.” 

Hope is already falling back to sleep when she says, “Lizzie it is then.” 

#

They share the bed from that moment on. If most mornings they wake up wrapped in each other’s arms, well, no one has to know about that but them. As time progresses, they start to fall asleep in each other’s arms, too. And then Hope notices the touches to her back when Lizzie has to reach for something. The brushing of fingertips when they pass something between them. Hope knows that there’s no one around to tell them that it is wrong or jail them for it, but she still cannot help but tell herself she must push her rising feelings down. 

“I did a spell.” Hope tells her one day. 

Lizzie looks up from the book she was reading and waits for Hope to expand. 

“I tracked your mother and sister. They’re together.” Hope holds up a map for her. 

She reaches out tentatively to take it. The blood trail gives a direct path from the lighthouse to Europe. Lizzie looks at it for a very long time and it takes a moment for Hope to realize she’s crying. Hope gently wipes the tears from her cheeks. 

“You don’t have to go to them if you don’t want. I just thought you’d want to know where they are.” Hope says. 

“I— I want to talk to them.” Lizzie looks up at her. 

“We can do it. I can do the spell again and get a more specific address. You can write them letters.” Hope offers. 

Lizzie throws her arms around Hope, nodding. “Thank you.” 

Hope smiles and hugs her back. 

She does end up writing them letters. They start sending them back and forth and Lizzie finds out that her mother was planning on coming to get her when she’d saved up enough money for the boat ride. That she had only managed to get Josie after a very long legal battle when they were younger. She says she’s living with a witch who can teach Lizzie more about her powers. That she, herself, is a vampire and can teach Lizzie how to survive as one in this world. 

After several weeks Hope asks. “Are you going to see them?” 

She shakes her head. “I might visit. But, if you’d allow me, I want to stay here with you.” 

“I think that would be okay.” Hope tells her. 

#

The light of the full moon bathes illuminates the area around them. Not that they need it, with the rotating light of the lighthouse around them. The phonograph plays soft music and Hope and Lizzie waltz around the space together. It’s nice to take a moment to just be together. Laugh, dance, look into each other’s eyes. 

Lizzie dips her, and then presses their lips together. Hope is startled at first, and then leans into it. Lizzie tastes like saltwater and smells like the earth. She looks like a goddess.

“I want to stay.” Lizzie says against her lips as she brings them both back upright. 

Hope nods. “For how long?” 

“As long as you let me.” 

“How does forever sound?” Hope has her hands on Lizzie’s waist now, pulling her closer. 

“Perfect.” Lizzie says, and then presses their lips back together. 


End file.
